RIM's
answer to the Apple
iPad has been rumored for at least
a few months, but the company made its new device official today.
The 7" tablet is called
the PlayBook and runs the BlackBerry Tablet OS which is based on
QNX
Neutrino microkernel architecture.
RIM co-CEO Mike Lazaridis describes the device as "the
first professional tablet".

The
PlayBook features a 7” touch screen (1024x600), dual-core Cortex A9
processor, 1GB of RAM, and will have both HDMI and
USB ports. Unlike the Apple iPad, the 9.7mm-thick PlayBook will have
both a front-facing and rear camera. The device can also
playback both HTML5 and Adobe Flash content.

Naturally,
the PlayBook supports 802.11n and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR. Although it won't be available at launch, RIM intends to release versions of the PlayBook with 3G and 4G functionality.

“RIM set out to engineer the best professional-grade tablet in the industry with cutting-edge hardware features and one of the world's most robust and flexible operating systems,” said Lazaridis. “The BlackBerry PlayBook solidly hits the mark with industry leading power, true multitasking, uncompromised web browsing and high performance multimedia.”

I'll admit that RIM was the last company that I thought would be making one of these. I can't see all these tablets selling well - they are still luxury items after all. I hope they have some sort of App store - otherwise they have no chance.